Dumisani Macdonald M Hompashe

We argue and demonstrate that human capital services-health, education and behavioral health-suffer from underutilized human capital. Healthcare providers, teachers, mothers and poor people have significant funds of knowledge about how to improve human capital that they do not use. This problem is not unique to Africa, but it is particularly pernicious in that setting due to historically low state capabilities. We demonstrate measurement methods that establish this gap and discuss approaches to research and policy that could be used to close the gap. ☆ This paper was prepared as a concept note for the meeting on Framework Research on Human Capital Development in Africa sponsored by the African Economic Research Council.

Quality school leadership and management are important determinants of teaching and learning quality. According to South Africa's National Development Plan (NDP), principals should provide administrative and curriculum leadership to schools. This study investigated the improvement between 2015 and 2019 Grade 9 mathematics scores in South Africa, and explored the extent to which the difference could be related to instructional leadership. Using the Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) decomposition technique, the performance gap is decomposed into a part that is associated with changes in the number of educational inputs, such as student, teacher, and school/principal characteristics, and a part that is associated with changes in the efficiency of the educational inputs. The findings suggest that instructional leadership variables are positively associated with increased mathematics scores but the return to student achievement was lower in 2019 than 2015. The findings also revealed that instructional leadership led to less improvements among under-resourced schools in 2019.

This is the first multi-district Standardised Patient (SP) study in South Africa. It measures the quality of TB screening at primary healthcare (PHC) facilities. We hypothesise that TB screening protocols and best practices are poorly adhered to at the PHC level. The SP method allows researchers to observe how healthcare providers identify, test and advise presumptive TB patients, and whether this aligns with clinical protocols and best practice. The study was conducted at PHC facilities in two provinces and 143 interactions at 39 facilities were analysed. Only 43% of interactions resulted in SPs receiving a TB sputum test and being offered an HIV test. TB sputum tests were conducted routinely (84%) while HIV tests were offered less frequently (47%). Nurses frequently neglected to ask SPs whether their household contacts had confirmed TB (54%). Antibiotics were prescribed without taking temperatures in 8% of cases. The importance of returning to the facility to receive TB test results was only explained in 28%. The SP method has highlighted gaps in clinical practice, signalling missed opportunities. Early detection of sub-optimal TB care is instrumental in decreasing TB-related morbidity and mortality. The findings provide the rationale for further quality improvement work in TB management.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationsh ip between lucky draw sales promotion (LDSP) and the four phases of brand loyalty in the telecommuni cation industry. Design/methodology/approach – A self-admin istered structure questionnaire was used to collect primary data from conveniently sampled 338 lucky draw winners in the Ghanaian telecommunication industry. A response rate of 67.1 perce nt was obtained for data analysis using structural equation modeling approach. Findings – It was found that LDSP positively relate to cognitive brand loyalty, and to behavi oral brand loyalty through affective and conative brand loyalty. All hypothesized relationships among the sequential four-stage loyalty were confirmed, except the direct relationship between LDSP and behavioral brand loyalty. Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited to lucky draw winners in the telecommunication industry. Practical implications – Marketers can increase brand loyalty and profit more from their customers through targeted programs with hedonic benefits to build strong commitment level (conative brand loyalty), strong favoritism (affective brand loyalty) and strong beliefs about the superiority (cognitive brand loyalty) of a brand. Originality/value – Theoretical ly, this study fills the void of empirical studies on non-price sales promotion techniques of lucky draw and customer brand loyalty in the telecommunication sector in developing economy context, and contributes to the body of knowledge in the area of custo mer brand loyalty and LDSP. Keywords Ghana, Brand loyalty, Lucky draw, Sales promotion, Telecommunication industry Paper type Research paper

OBJECTIVE Our study aims to evaluate hypertensive case management in South Africa's public health sector using simulated patients. METHOD Our study describes interactions between hypertensive simulated patients and primary healthcare workers at 39 public sector healthcare facilities in two metropolitan centres in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. Our analysis focus on 97 interactions where our eight simulated patients tested within range for stage 1 hypertension, that is with SBP 140-159 mmHg and/or DBP 90-99 mmHg. For this subset, we describe how healthcare workers communicated the outcome of the blood pressure test, and whether they follow government guidelines on risk assessment and lifestyle advice. RESULTS Healthcare workers highlighted the risks associated with hypertension in one out of three cases and stressed the importance of regular monitoring of blood pressure in less than half of cases. Hypertensive patients received advice on all six lifestyle risk factors in 8% of cases. 39% of patients received no lifestyle advice at all. In one out of four cases, hypertensive patients left the facility without a hypertension diagnosis and with no prospect of a follow-up visit. CONCLUSION Simulated patients can assess the quality of hypertension case management, yielding granular and comprehensive information that can help mobilize resources to improve care. The management of hypertension patients in South African public healthcare facilities is critically insufficient. Given that hypertension is responsible for a rising share of deaths in South Africa and many of these deaths are preventable, urgent intervention is needed.

Health holds an important position in maintaining economic development since it is both a prerequisite for and an outcome of economic development. This means that health contributes greatly to the attainment of sustainable development and health outcomes. The importance of health is demonstrated in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) where three of the eight goals are aimed at improving health outcomes. Despite progress made by other middle-income countries in achieving health-related MDGs, South Africa is still worse off in respect of health outcomes and experiences a challenge in attaining positive outcomes for these goals. This study’s main focus was to identify the association between public health expenditure and health outcomes in South Africa’s nine provinces from 2002 to 2016. The study implemented fixed effects and a random effects panel data estimation technique to control for time effects and individual provincial heterogeneity. This was followed by employing the Haus...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of electricity prices on sectoral output in South Africa from 1994 to 2015 and also econometrically examine the impact of electricity prices on output at sectoral levels over the same period. The paper also put forth a policy proposal that brings together electricity end-users, suppliers and government regulators with the goal of conveying an effective outcome that withstands output growth without necessarily compromising social and developmental objectives. Design/methodology/approach Local sources of data were utilised in applying panel data analysis. The paper utilised the data from South Africa Reserve Bank and Quantec South Africa. The Hausman test indicated that the fixed effect estimator is the appropriate estimator for this paper. Robust estimators (such as Driscoll Kraay (SCC), feasible generalised least of squares, least square dummy variables and seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) were employed for consistent an...

This is the first multi-district Standardised Patient (SP) study in South Africa. It measures the quality of TB screening at primary healthcare (PHC) facilities. We hypothesise that TB screening protocols and best practices are poorly adhered to at the PHC level. The SP method allows researchers to observe how healthcare providers identify, test and advise presumptive TB patients, and whether this aligns with clinical protocols and best practice. The study was conducted at PHC facilities in two provinces and 143 interactions at 39 facilities were analysed. Only 43% of interactions resulted in SPs receiving a TB sputum test and being offered an HIV test. TB sputum tests were conducted routinely (84%) while HIV tests were offered less frequently (47%). Nurses frequently neglected to ask SPs whether their household contacts had confirmed TB (54%). Antibiotics were prescribed without taking temperatures in 8% of cases. The importance of returning to the facility to receive TB test resul...

Household saving is a major element of domestic saving in a developing country such as South Africa. The study employs the multiple regression analysis to examine the predictors of saving behaviour in South Africa. Using a survey of 3900 households across the country by Finmark, the results reveal that education, age and race are strong predictors of saving behaviour for both contractual and non-contractual measures of saving.

Introduction Universal Health Coverage is not only about access to health services but also about access to high-quality care, since poor experiences may deter patients from accessing care. Evidence shows that quality of care drives health outcomes, yet little is known about non-clinical dimensions of care, and patients’ experience thereof relative to satisfaction with visits. This paper investigates the role of non-clinical dimensions of care in patient satisfaction. Methods Our study describes the interactions of informed and non-informed patients with primary healthcare workers at 39 public healthcare facilities in two metropolitan centres in two South African provinces. Our analysis included 1357 interactions using standardised patients (for informed patients) and patients’ exit interviews (for non-informed patients). The data were combined for three types of visits: contraception, hypertension and tuberculosis. We describe how satisfaction with care was related to patients’ exp...

The distinctive features of inflation targeting include the publishing of the formal target band or point target for the rate of inflation at one or more time horizon/s and the explicit confirmation that low and steady inflation is the long-run objective of monetary policy. There are four main preconditions of inflation targeting: 1) an independent central bank that is free from fiscal and political pressures; 2) a central bank that has both the ability to forecast inflation and the capability to model inflation data; 3) the presence of fully deregulated prices and an economy that is affected by changes of commodity prices, as well as exchange rates; and 4) the presence of sound banking system and well developed capital markets. This dissertation investigates the extent to which Malawi meets the preconditions for inflation targeting. Malawi is committed to the central bank''s functional independence as well as the pursuit of prudent fiscal policy measures for the attainment ...

This study aims to explore the experiences and perceptions of school educators on how school principals monitor curriculum delivery. It investigates the principal-agent problem and accountability in education in the Eastern Cape. Two types of data are used: qualitative data from interviews with school principals and teachers, and quantitative data from an international educational evaluation. The interview data were collected in 2015 at selected primary schools within three Eastern Cape education districts. Respondents at each school included the school principal and three foundation phase teachers. To triangulate findings from interviews, the association between school leadership and student academic scores in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 dataset was examined for both Grade 5 and 9. The association between measures of instructional leadership (e.g. teachers’ understanding of curricular goals and teachers’ degree of success in implementing c...